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‘Farage is out of his element’ – have Reform lost control? | The Edition

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Spectator Life

An intelligent mix of culture, food, style and property, plus where to go and what to see.

Dostoevsky is a dreadful writer

From Spectator Life

On the back of my copy of Fyodor Dostoevsky's 1869 novel The Idiot, there’s a quote from A.C. Grayling that tells you what to think of it. ‘One of the most excoriating, compelling and remarkable books ever written,’ it reads, ‘and without question one of the greatest.’ That ‘without question’ bothered me. Why assume that every classic deserves its reputation? We should make up our own minds after having read one, as we do with any other book.   That wasn’t the only reason why I treated Grayling’s claims with scepticism as I edged my way into this gargantuan novel (I can’t remember exactly when that was, but I know I was a much younger man at the time).

Spectator TV

Event

An evening with Rory Sutherland: The world according to the Wiki Man

  • Wednesday 29 July 2026, 7:00pm
  • Westminster, London
  • £27.50 - £57.50
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Magazine

This week's magazine

Nigelʼs circus

Farage’s next trick

Will Nigel Farage’s big gamble pay off?

When Reform high command gathered in the boardroom of their Millbank headquarters last Tuesday, the meeting was supposed to be to select candidates in their 120 most winnable seats and choose dozens of campaign managers. It went on for six hours, as party chiefs instead addressed a growing sense of unease that the great momentum of 2025 has been lost. A source familiar with the discussions reveals that Chris Bruni-Lowe, pollster and message man, has been concerned for months that Reform needs to do something big to ‘take back control’. ‘Chris challenged people, saying things aren’t working the way they need to,’ the source says.

Will Nigel Farage’s big gamble pay off?

When Reform high command gathered in the boardroom of their Millbank headquarters last Tuesday, the meeting was supposed to be to select candidates in their 120 most winnable seats and choose dozens of campaign managers. It went on for six hours, as party chiefs instead addressed a growing sense of unease that the great momentum of 2025 has been lost. A source familiar with the discussions reveals that Chris Bruni-Lowe, pollster and message man, has been concerned for months that Reform needs to do something big to ‘take back control’. ‘Chris challenged people, saying things aren’t working the way they need to,’ the source says.

Culture

The good, the bad and the ugly in books, exhibitions, cinema, TV, dance, music, podcasts and theatre.

Springwood is a waste of time

From the magazine

Springwood, set in June 1939, looks at a series of tricky meetings between the American president FDR and George VI at the Roosevelts’ family retreat in upstate New York. George and Queen Elizabeth are guests at the poky old house and although they complain to each other about their sleeping quarters they hide their dismay from their hosts. The writer-director, Richard Nelson, evidently despises the main characters apart from FDR (Robert Lindsay) who comes across as a genial old buffer addicted to whisky. The dialogue is divided into easy-to-handle segments. First, we get the history bit. FDR tells George that the US ought to join Britain in the coming war but pro-German sentiment is very strong and the majority of Americans may support Hitler. Then we get the therapy bit.

Podcasts

Cartoons

Grizelda

‘‘We aren’t going to take sides.’’

Cartoon

Thomas Munson

Britain wants you to binge drink

From Spectator Life